Gender in the New Harvard Era

On October 11, 1999, at a minute past midnight, Radcliffe College officially came to an end. For 120 years, there had been two colleges under the Harvard umbrella, dedicated to the interests and needs of undergraduates; in the October night, Radcliffe College was no more, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study was born. While this merger is likely to be the best policy for both Harvard College and the Radcliffe Institute to pursue their goals, the question still remains how women's issues and gender concerns will be addressed in the post-Radcliffe era.

We are still concerned with sexual violence directed toward Harvard women and men, about the possibility for sexual harrassment and about lingering disadvantages for women in the classroom at Harvard. These are the issues that may go unnoticed with the end of Radlciffe College. The new Institute must include these concerns in their emphasis on gender and include undergraduates in their efforts, as Radcliffe did.

Serious questions remain about how the two colleges, and their different perspectives, will be best integrated. One noticeable casualty in the shuffle of reorganization is this year's Captain Jonathan Fay prize. Traditionally given to an outstanding female in the graduating class, the prize was not awarded this year because it may be in violation of the University's nondiscrimination policies, since the award winner as currently selected must be a woman. However, despite a similar legal review, the College will be giving the Paul Revere Frothingham Scholarship and similar prizes which list among the characteristics "manliness" and are given only to men. While we support the University's concern for Title IX and its desire to see all prizes open to male or female recepients, we consider the short-term decisions made for this year unfortunate. If eligibility for any of the prizes is, according to the donor's wishes, gender-specific, we urge the College to designate an equivalent prize for a member of the opposite sex, so as to ensure an equal number of prizes are available to men and women.

Perhaps the most radical change brought about by the merger is the change in funding and space availability for undergraduate women's groups. Under the banner of Radcliffe College, the Lyman Common Room served as a place to meet, display material and provide a space that was where many of the groups concerned with issues of gender could interact. The Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), the putative governing body of Radcliffe College, provided a source of funding for these programs, using term-bill fees from women to fund a wide range of projects and programs. With the end of Radcliffe, the Lyman Common Room is gone and RUS has lost its funding authority.

In its place, Harvard has created the Ann Radcliffe Trust, a group of students and faculty that stand ready to oversee $20,000 in grants in the fall, though with greater scrutiny and more hurdles. Though this committee is still in its planning stages, the current undergraduate members have been hand-picked by Karen E. Avery '87, associate dean of the College for coeducation and director of the Trust, and the groups that will receive funding will need a Faculty sponsor. We hope the Trust will evolve to serve the voices of undergraduate women and men concerned with gender issues and the place of women on campus and fund those projects, whether popular with the administration or not, that best address these concerns.

Given the demise of Radcliffe College, this year has been a crossroads for many of the undergraduate groups involved with women's issues. As of last month, RUS had not yet filed for official group status with Harvard College, raising questions about what their role will be in the united College. The Women's Leadership Project conference continued its excellent work this year, as did the Take Back the Night coalition. These groups have received national acclaim and have proved central to keeping the experience of women on campus prominent. However, the Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe conference for female first-years did not occur this year, and there are no plans for it to continue; Dean of Freshman Elizabeth Studley Nathans has suggested there is no longer a need. We disagree. We hope they weather the transition and find places, with the funding of the Ann Radcliffe Trust and others, to continue their important work.

We are also encouraged by the flurry of new activity that surrounded the demise of Radcliffe. Last month, a coalition of women's groups called for joint office space in the Yard, to fill a space once occupied by the Lyman Common Room; we feel this would be an important step toward ensuring these groups a smooth transition.

Last Wednesday, the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association's Strawberry Tea was held in Radcliffe Yard for men and women of the senior class--the first time men have been invited to the event. The tea, the time when the Fay Prize had traditionally been awarded, and its setting, among the buildings that until October had been dedicated to the education of undergraduate women, together mark a transition, bittersweet but full of opportunity. There is a place for men at the Tea--as well as in the campus women's organizations and on the Ann Radcliffe Trust--and perhaps receiving a Fay Prize, if the Frothingham and the other similar prizes become available to women as well.

In fulfilling its agreement to dissolve Radcliffe College, the partners--the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard College and the University as a whole--must make the effort to pursue a prominent place for gender and women's concerns in the united Harvard College, male and female. The distribution of prizes is one of the most emotional aspects of Harvard undergraduate life, for better or for worse--when the opportunity to win them is made equal for women and men, we will begin to see the results of this promising new arrangement between Harvard and Radcliffe.